I make this every year--I wish I could use my own nonna's recipe, but she was, like me, a tinkerer, and I found no less than 5 recipes for pastiera in her own collection. I've done a lot of tinkering and researching on my own and tried different variables--more eggs, fewer eggs, whisked whites, pastry cream, lard, butter, etc--before settling on my favorite iteration (pastry cream is a yes, fewer eggs is a yes, along with a nice splash of cointreau for a nontraditional touch). The one sticking point for me (literally!) is that I have never found a pastry dough (pasta frolla) that doesn't fall apart when I try to line my pie plates; it's very much like a sugar cookie dough, all butter and eggs without much gluten, and I always end up running back and forth between the counter and the freezer and still sticking pieces in by hand. Any tips?
So beautiful and delicious, thank you, Emiko!
I make this every year--I wish I could use my own nonna's recipe, but she was, like me, a tinkerer, and I found no less than 5 recipes for pastiera in her own collection. I've done a lot of tinkering and researching on my own and tried different variables--more eggs, fewer eggs, whisked whites, pastry cream, lard, butter, etc--before settling on my favorite iteration (pastry cream is a yes, fewer eggs is a yes, along with a nice splash of cointreau for a nontraditional touch). The one sticking point for me (literally!) is that I have never found a pastry dough (pasta frolla) that doesn't fall apart when I try to line my pie plates; it's very much like a sugar cookie dough, all butter and eggs without much gluten, and I always end up running back and forth between the counter and the freezer and still sticking pieces in by hand. Any tips?